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The staple manufacture of his native city was the weaving, first into ropes, then into tent covers and garments of the hair of the goat flocks of the Taurus. As the making of these cilicia was unskilled labour of the commonest kind, the trade of tent maker was one both lightly esteemed and miserably paid. It must not, however, be inferred from this that the family of St. Paul were people of low position. The learning of a trade was a duty enjoined by the Rabbis on the parents of every Jewish boy. Gamaliel himself said that "learning of any kind, even the advanced study of the law, unaccompanied by a trade, ends in nothing and leads to sin." R. Judah said truly that "labour honours the labourer," and that not to teach one's son a trade is like teaching him robbery. The wisdom of this rule became apparent in the case of Paul, as doubtless of hundreds besides, when the changes and chances of life compelled him to earn his livelihood. It is clear from the education provided for Paul that his parents could have little conjectured how absolutely their son would be reduced to depend on so unremunerative a toil. The reason why this was chosen may have been purely local; perhaps his father had been taught the same trade. "A man should not change his trade, nor that of his father," says R. Yochanan. But though we see how much he felt the burden of the wretched labour by which he determined to earn his own bread rather than trespass on the charity of his converts (1 Thessalonians 2:6-9; 2 Thessalonians 3:8; 1 Corinthians 9:12-15), yet it had one advantage in being so absolutely mechanical as to leave the thought entirely free. While he plaited the black, strong-scented goat's hair, he might be soaring in thought to the inmost heaven, or holding high converse with Apollos or Aquila, with Luke or Timothy, on the loftiest themes which can engage the thought of man.

(Archdeacon Farrar.)

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KJV: And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome:) and came unto them.

WEB: He found a certain Jew named Aquila, a man of Pontus by race, who had recently come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. He came to them,